2 days ago
Chinese restaurant featured in Netflix thriller Black Doves has licence revoked over illegal workers
A top Chinese restaurant which featured in Netflix spy drama Black Doves has had its licence revoked after it hired four illegal workers.
Fei Er Cottage in Westminster, central London, was stripped of its right to sell alcohol by the local council last Thursday.
It comes after immigration enforcement officers raided the restaurant last year and found four staff working without the correct visas or having illicitly entered the UK.
Authorities discovered that the venue, which was used as a filming location in the hit show starring Keira Knightley, had four staff from China and Nepal working illegally in the kitchen or as waiters.
A Home Office report claimed that their illegal employment was 'not just an honest mistake by the management but instead was a disregard for the immigration rules'.
Further probes found that the restaurant, whose red basement dining area was used in a scene when Ben Whishaw 's character, hitman Sam Young, carries out his first kill, had also breached its CCTV conditions and alcohol licence.
Following the immigration raid, a request was made to transfer Fei Er Cottage's licence to the current holder's ex-wife, Xiaoyu Wang.
However, documents on Westminster City Council's website show this petition was rejected and the restaurant's licence has now been revoked completely.
The Licensing Committee said the current owner Feng Qui had been involved in recruiting illegal workers, paying wages and agreeing rota hours.
It also noted that he had been involved in employing another illegal worker at a previous premises in 2018.
The committee stated that the restaurant should have severed links with Mr Qui when Ms Wang became the new director of the restaurant.
In the decision document, the council said that Mrs Wang 'lacked experience running restaurants' and despite being seperated from her ex-husband, was still 'reliant' on him professionally.
It was heard, however, that Mrs Wang had now ensured that all staff employed at Fei Er Cottage were now legal.
The immigration raid at the restaurant took place on December 18 last year but it only came to light in March.
It was found there was at least one worker doing more than 65 hours a week, according to payslips found by officers.
They were being paid £12.50 an hour, which was above the UK minimum wage of £12.21 – but their pay was being 'taxed' by the restaurant by more than a third.
It revealed a worker found in the kitchen had 'clandestinely entered the UK in 2012' and was arrested while working at another Chinese restaurant in 2018 before absconding six months later.
A second worker entered the UK illegally in 2016, while a woman from China came into the UK on a visitors' visa but overstayed this and never had the right to work in the UK.
Meanwhile an employee could only work 20 hours a week in term time because he was on a student visa - but was in fact working more than three times that.
The decision by the council means that Fei Er Cottage, described as having some of the best handmade dumplings in London, has lost its licence to sell alcohol.
